EVERYONE BUT YOU
A diverting blend of plaintive sex and literary references. --The New York Times
Novack follows her lauded debut, Precious (2009), with an electrifying collection of sexy, gutsy, imaginatively compassionate stories. Her female characters are frank and assertive, even when they’re clueless, and Novack writes equally convincingly from a man’s point of view. Vividly tactile, funny, irreverent, and incisive, these stories of imperiled relationships are also richly plotted. In the blisteringly funny and tough “Fireflies,” a hot number calling herself Lola picks up a guy named Harold as they watch a used-car lot go up in flames, ultimately teaching him a thing or two about the treacheries of love and the persistence of class divides. The arrival, via priority mail, of her long-estranged, now-deceased father’s wooden leg jolts a young woman into awareness of how empty her casual sexual conquests are. In “White Trees in Summer,” an elderly man who helped his acutely suffering wife die is harassed by teenagers. Novack’s keen and spirited tales delve into the crazy and cruel situations we helplessly devise and marvel over how unfathomable we are to each other and ourselves. — Donna Seaman, Booklist
“Novack is fascinated by those on the edge: of insanity, of break-ups, of self-discovery fraught with acute pain.”—Publishers Weekly
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